Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-B) — Valuation Snapshot

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-B) is a bank, insurer or other financial, and a free-cash-flow discounted-cash-flow (DCF) model is structurally the wrong lens for it: for these businesses debt and float are raw material, not financing, so there is no meaningful 'free cash flow' to discount. Instead of a misleading intrinsic-value number, this page reads BRK-B the way financials are actually valued — on relative multiples such as price-to-earnings and, above all, price-to-book — plus a plain description of where the stock trades. It is a descriptive snapshot, not a valuation, and not investment advice.

On the numbers we do have, BRK-B trades at a recent price of $575.25, a market capitalisation of about $1,231,443,329,024, sitting 91% of the way up its 52-week range ($464.01–$586.30), on the NYSE.

The standard alternative to a DCF is relative valuation — comparing BRK-B's trading multiples against a sector benchmark. Here that gives P/E of 14.4× (in line with the peer median of 14.0×); Fwd P/E of 25.6× (richer than the peer median of 13.4×); P/S of 3.1× (cheaper than the peer median of 4.8×). A cheaper multiple than peers can flag a discount or a market that expects weaker growth; it is a comparison, not a recommendation.

Finally, a price-based read — explicitly not a valuation. BRK-B is in an up-trend (price above both its 50- and 200-day averages), trading -1.9% from its 52-week high. Over the past year the stock is +14.9%. Moving-average trend and 52-week position describe where the stock has traded; they say nothing about what it is worth.

To be exact about what this page is not: we are not saying the numbers for BRK-B are unavailable. They are, and they are above. We are saying a discounted-cash-flow model is the wrong instrument for this kind of business, and publishing one anyway — because the inputs happen to exist — would be a precise answer to the wrong question. Refusing is the more useful answer, and it is the same rule we apply to every name in this category.